In general, OTA service denotes a general type of wireless communication service which sends information as requested by the users of mobile terminals. That is, OTA service is a service in which an OTA server sends information to a mobile terminal when a user requests information from the OTA server.
A mobile terminal installs terminal information related to mobile terminal or applications (hereinafter ‘applets’) corresponding to various types of additional services in a smart cards and then uses these. Since smart cards can store and process a large amount of information and provide excellent security, the necessity for smart cards is gradually increasing. For example, smart cards can be used in the financial, communication, medical, security and broadcasting fields.
Here, smart cards may be generally classified into the following three types depending on their functions and internal structures. That is, smart cards may include 1) memory-type smart cards in which microprocessors are not embedded, 2) smart cards in which microprocessors are embedded, and 3) interactive smart cards in which applications are installed and which are capable of the bi-directional transmission of information.
Such smart cards are used separately for their respective purposes, and are provided with data corresponding to terminal information or an applet via a Short Message Service (SMS) message. Accordingly, there is a data transmission capacity problem, for example, only data of a maximum size of 180 bytes can be sent, and thus currently it is possible to send only a small amount of data.
As a countermeasure against this problem, a method of transmitting OTA data through a Virtual Machine (VM) and a browser has been proposed. However, this method also has a problem in that OTA data can be received only when access to the wireless Internet has been made.
As a result, research into a system and method for providing OTA service that enables various types of OTA data to be transmitted and installed or stored in a single smart card must be continuously conducted.